Qifa Nabki
Lebanon
Railroads and Ferries
Traffic in Beirut is awful and it’s getting worse. When I was in town a couple of weeks ago, it took me an hour to traverse the 3km from Hamra to Sodeco on a weekday afternoon, and then another hour and half to get from Sodeco up to the mountain village of Roumieh (which would … Continue reading
U.S. Names Ambassador to Syria; Different Ali Tajeddine Onboard Ethiopian Airlines Crash
Sources are reporting that the new American ambassador to Damascus will be Robert Ford, former ambassador to Algeria and current deputy ambassador to Iraq. It’s funny: I was having tea with an NPR journalist yesterday afternoon and we were remarking on the fact that we still have no inkling of what the Obama Administration’s Syria … Continue reading
Electoral Systems and Lebanon
A friend of mine recently drew my attention to the fact that the ministerial statement (al-bayan al-wizari) of Saad al-Hariri’s government contains a surprising clause: a commitment to begin developing a new electoral law for the 2013 parliamentary elections within the next eighteen months (see article no. 20) It’s not clear to me how binding … Continue reading
Quid Pro Quo
(The scene: A Beirut cafe) Abu Michel: Did you hear that they’re trying to lower the voting age to 18? Abu Samir: Of course. What a ridiculous idea. Abu Michel: What do 18 year-olds know about anything? Abu Samir: When I was 18, I was still a child. Abu Michel: And the 18 year-olds these … Continue reading
Beirut Exchange
While I was in Beirut last week, I stopped by the final lecture of The Beirut Exchange (a two-week program organized by Mideastwire twice a year, in which college and masters students get to meet various political bigwigs and study Arabic). If you’re at all interested in Middle East politics, and Lebanon in particular, I’d … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…